Thursday, January 30, 2014

A Hairy Situation

It's a rite of passage every cancer/chemo survivor must go though -- the regrowing of the hair. And I think about 95% of us absolutely hate the process.

Basically, I like my hair blond, long, and straight.

Like this:
July 2009. For the record, I did dye my hair frequently and straighten my hair daily to achieve this look.

I don't care what you tell me about liking my  my current length, texture, color -- I do not currently like my hair. One bit. No matter what I do to it.

I've tried just embracing the wild natural curls. Like this...

This look kind of works in Hawaii. Kind of. 5.5 months post-chemo.

I've tried blow drying and flat-ironing the curl out of it and turns out it's just not the curl I hate...
A whole heck of a lot of straightening went into this mess. #notworthit. 6 months post-chemo.

What I do on most days is try to use a crap-load of product (gel, hairspray, fixation goo, etc.) to get my hair to stay down but it still has some waves/texture and isn't an unruly mess. And this is what I end up with...
Try not to be envious of how awesome my hair is mmmk? 6 months post-chemo.
Note: If you tell me about some hair product that's awesome that I should use and blah blah blah. Stop. I'm not buying it. I have no money and I'm sick of buying hair products that don't do much to change what I dislike.

The one thing I can do something about is the color. So I'm getting it dyed to tomorrow. Just to warm up the mouse-brown and cover my few greys. Maybe that will put me in a better mood about it.

The rest only time can fix. A lot of time. *Sigh* 

8 comments:

  1. I imagine it's frustrating to have come so far in your journey to have to deal with something that "shouldn't" be a big deal. But it is a valid frustration and I hope you find encouragement tomorrow! You are a survivor and you are beautiful!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Can't wait to see your dye job! It will do a world of difference for your confidence. Hang in there sister. I never thought mine was growing fast enough either. The waiting stage is terribly frustrating. But looking back I realize it's all a part of god shaping me on this journey. Patience has always been my biggest downfall and I've had to muster up A LOT of it when I haven't always wanted to. xoxo

    ReplyDelete
  3. What I love about this post is that it's you being you....I think the new look it is very anglo-saxon so, by default, I like it.

    ReplyDelete
  4. You have a beautiful face...I think you should embrace the short hair and go spiky (think Sharon Stone / Halle Berry)!

    ReplyDelete
  5. You are beautiful no matter what! I can understand the frustration too but it will grow out in no time!

    ReplyDelete
  6. I agree with Rachel that it has to be so frustrating. So many of us tie our identities to our hair and I think this would be so very hard for any one of us to go through.

    ReplyDelete
  7. It is SUCH a pain to grow out. I totally hear ya. Mine was long and blonde (like yours!) before chemo and when it grew out, well, our hair could be twins. It's crazy how everyone's hair, no matter how different it is pre-chemo, all starts to come back in the exact same way. I just tried to focus on the fact that it IS growing, and every day is one day closer back to my long, blonde (albeit dyed) locks. And I'm proof that it does! When it was a curly mop on top of my head, I used mousse to try and scrunch my curls and give them some definition so they wouldn't look so fuzzy-ugh the FUZZY! I remember going into my stylist one day to see if there was anything at all we could do with it, and she said "Sooo, are we going for the crunchy look?" Maybe I overkilled it on the mousse just a tad... LOL! She is my neighbor from childhood and a very good friend so all we could do was laugh:)

    My only advice is to just get through it...you'll make it...and I know it sucks. Before you know it you will be rockin some cutesy bob and on your way back to long and blonde:) I hope a little bit of color will help the mood today-I'm betting it does! Mouse brown does nothing for us blonde girls;)

    Hang in there, sister!! Sending prayers for your heart and your hair-I believe that if it's important to us, it's important to HIM! Love you!!!

    ReplyDelete
  8. I'm "lucky" that my hair is growing back straight but I still hate it. It's very refreshing to hear someone going through the same thing I am. I dyed my hair and shaved the sides to go for a Miley Cyrus/Pink look. Its a much more daring look than I would've ever tried in my pre-cancer life which helped make it a little more bearable.

    ReplyDelete